


King(s?) of the Sky

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Lovers, Humor, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rating May Change, Slow Burn, you know the drill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-22 16:53:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11384397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: The Ravens all but refuse to listen to their new king, believing the throne is not rightfully his. Out of desperation, Tibarn seeks a method to… “make it legit.”For better or for worse, Tibarn has to somehow convince Naesala to marry him for the good of the United Bird Tribes.





	1. Chapter 1

“There were hunters at the edge of our forest again. Does this not displease the herons?”

  
“Considering we don’t have boundaries yet, it’s hard to be offended if there are no definite lines.”

  
“The beorc need to learn their limits. A small party of laguz could easily frighten them away.”

  
“They do not know the edges of our territory. We still haven’t completed drawing it up,” Tibarn’s voice raised slightly at the end, causing the ravens in the room to flinch, whereas their hawk counterparts (and lone heron) remained unperturbed. He sighed and pinched his nose, forcing himself to calm down, “… Recess. We continue discussions tomorrow” He pretended to not notice how quickly the ravens left the room. The hawks and Reyson, at least, were used to his outbursts.

  
“They’re just not used to you,” Reyson supplied, quickly frowning, “Sorry… habit.” Tibarn waved the heron off, knowing the prince never meant harm by reading his heart, and the king himself had left his mental barriers down by mistake.

  
“It’s more than not being used to me. They simply don’t listen to me,” he sank into his chair. At the beginning of the meeting, he was more than eager to end it early to spend a day outside in the early spring sun. Now, he was too mentally exhausted to even consider leaving the room.

  
The unification of the bird tribes could be described as ‘messy’, at best. The easiest part was convincing the ravens of Kilvas and hawks of Phoenicis to move, the only disputes being over the groups’ general dislike of one another, but it never worsened. If Tibarn were to recall, the entire beginning of the United Bird Nation was a rather smooth start in comparison to… this. They had even formed an agreement with the neighboring Gallia to use the mountains and nearby forests to hunt, since the herons were so adamant about not using Serenes for that task.

  
It was only after Naesala, the former king of Kilvas, abdicated the throne to Tibarn and left for Begnion as an ambassador. Before he knew it, the once neutral ravens seemed to fight against his every word, finding even the tiniest of things to argue about, and being certain to drag it out. The latest incursion was their borders, and how the beorc did not respect them. What the ravens did not seem to accept was that the borders were not even drawn up yet, let alone distributed and explained. To make matters worse, it was the laguz who were disobeying the predicted borders, not the beorc, and Tibarn has had enough of the hawk-raven scuffles resulting from the former chiding the latter for crossing it and scaring off beorc.

  
He had borders, a near hawk-raven war, and much more to be completed, and the raven advisors were still stuck on _borders_.

  
Janaff poked his head in through the door, “Hey Tibarn? Naesala’s here.”

  
“Let him in,” Tibarn sighed. He didn’t dislike Naesala per say, but should the raven ever see himself on fire and Tibarn holds a glass of water, the hawk would find himself hard pressed to not drink said water. At the very least, he no longer wanted to tear the former raven king apart, largely due to the fact he was literally the most productive bird laguz in any authorial position right now.

  
“I hope you have good news, Naesala,” Tibarn did not even bother to wait for the door to shut, “We’re in sore need of it here.”

  
“Nothing more than usual,” the raven approached the table, leaning his weight against it. “Why? Can the poor hawk king not handle a few rogue ravens?”

  
“Apparently not,” the hawk hissed in annoyance, wings half flaring as he leaned against the table and pinned Naesala with his eyes. “The ravens refuse to listen to me, and constantly stir up problems. If this continues, we may have a civil war on our hands before the first three months even passed.”

  
Naesala threw his head back in laughter, bracing a hand against the table as humor trembled his body. He wiped his eyes in mirth, “Truly?” Considering the look in the raven’s eyes, Tibarn decided to not give Naesala the gift of an answer. “Oh my dearest Tibarn,” the hawk wrinkled his nose at the sarcasm, “It’s not so difficult to get a few ravens to listen.”

  
“Then show me,” the hawk gritted out, abandoning his pride and looking away from the smug look on Naesala’s face.

  
=-=-=

  
The raven did more than show Tibarn up: he all but humiliated the king. It wasn’t directly said, but the fact that a small speech was able to get the ravens to at least be amicable to Tibarn was enough to ruffle his feathers. As if to rub his small victory further in the hawk’s face, Naesala opted to stay the night in Serenes, gloating over his small victory with Leanne.

  
Tibarn took the earliest chance he could to slip away, allowing his wings to half flare out in anger when hidden from prying eyes. He decidedly ignored the quiet footsteps behind him, determining the clumsiness to belong to Reyson, who had seen him at much worse than this.

  
He wondered- how much of his torment was truly brought on by the blood pact? Or perhaps he was reading too much into Naesala’s actions, for once. Regardless, his angry train of thought came to a halt when he encountered a raven getting ready to leave. He recognized her as one of the Begnion-Laguz ambassadors, but not a close co-worker of Naesala. She would have to do for now.

  
“Hey,” Tibarn reached for a raven, gently tapping their shoulder instead of grabbing it, like he would have with his hawk brethren. If there was one thing he learned about the ravens, it’s that they disliked the straightforward approach. There was a reason that their former king was so cunning, after all. “Is there something I’m missing? Did the ravens change so much after leaving Phoenicis?”

  
The raven seemed to raise a brow at that, “I don’t think so? Not sure really, haven’t stayed in Kilvas my whole life,” she offered a small smile. “But if I had to guess… It’s probably because you’re not really king to them.” There was no venom in her voice, but had she been any other raven, Tibarn did not doubt there would be. He heard Reyson hitch a breath behind him, no doubt the heron thought Tibarn would only become angrier, but instead the hawk turned fully towards the raven girl, ignoring the nagging feeling her dead blue eyes gave him.

  
Noting she had Tibarn’s full attention, she continued, “Even though Naesala basically gave it up, you technically have no right. Unless you’re secretly related to him, or can beat him in cunningness, they won’t listen.” She turned from Tibarn, stretching out her wings to warn the king to give her some space, “If you pardon me?” The hawk nodded and waved her off, too much in thought to notice her departure, nor Reyson stand next to him.

  
Tibarn sighed, determining that he already lost his pride once today, a second time wouldn’t kill him. “Please tell me you have an idea,” he asked the heron prince, ignoring the shame crawling up his skin.

  
“I do,” Reyson frowned, “And you won’t like it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm ashamed at the quality of this chapter, but I can find no better way to create the beginning. The rest of the chapters written up so far are much longer and plot heavy, however, so I'll focus on those. I might come back to this one to clean it up, since it's the opening chapter.
> 
> Yes, Tibarn was speaking to Vika at the end. Vika seems good as far as ravens go, and she probably had the easiest time merging with the hawks.


	2. Chapter 2

He should not have agreed to listen to Reyson’s plan, and he certainly should not be entertaining the idea. But here he was, standing outside of Naesala’s quarters, on the verge of either knocking or sprinting down the hallway, having spent the last half hour mulling over the pros and cons of a strategic retreat. Quietly, he cursed Reyson and how convincing the heron could be.

_“At this point, I’d take anything. So just hit me.”_

_Reyson raised a delicate eyebrow, “She mentioned being related to Naesala, right? And considering you’re not blood related, there’s one other method of adding someone to your family…” The heron trailed off and gave the hawk a_ look _, and the larger man was quick to fill in the blank._

_“… You’re right. I don’t like it,” Tibarn grumbled._

_“Unless you’re smarter than Naesala,” the hawk opened his mouth to argue, “Which, I hate to admit, you’re not. Neither of us are.”_

For the third time that day, he’d swallow his pride and knock on the former raven king’s door, with the eagerness of a prisoner walking towards his execution. He suspected Naesala matched the pace of that, since he stood for a solid minute before the door opened, revealing a frowning raven inside. “Oh. It’s you,” he opened the door wider and stood tall, hardly reaching Tibarn’s nose, “What do you want?”

“We have to…” he closed his eyes and sighed, “We have to _talk_. Privately.” Naesala rolled his eyes at that, but made way for the hawk king to enter his quarters. Tibarn took the moment to observe the raven’s belongings, the corner of his mouth twitching when he noticed how many shiny things Naesala owned. Outside of the well-stocked vanity, Naesala was almost hilariously stereotypical of a raven.

“Talking needs two people,” the raven huffed, snapping Tibarn from his thoughts.

“Right,” and all the time the hawk spent standing outside the door, thinking of what to say, had completely failed him. Before Naesala could call him out on appearing like a ‘gaping buffoon’, he quickly filled the awkward silence. “… We need to get married.”

He glanced at Naesala, the look on the raven’s face borderline comical. His wings were hiked up high, and his eyes appeared ready to bulge from his face from mere surprise. When he spoke, his voice was low and careful, “Are you toying with me? Because if you didn’t mean what you said, you will pay dearly.”

“Now before you go off on me, it was Reyson’s idea.”

“I think I’m well _beyond_ going off on you, and you have all of five minutes to explain before I smack some sense into you.” The raven paced the room, obviously trying to regain himself, and Tibarn couldn’t find it in himself to blame the man (after all, that was him outside the door all but five minutes ago.) “Saying that it’s ‘the most revolting idea I’ve ever heard’ would be the _kind_ thing to say,” Naesala spat, all but ready to make true on his promise to punish Tibarn, “I’d rather tear out my own wings than mate with you.”

“The feeling is definitely mutual,” Tibarn laughed bitterly, “But this is not in your hands alone nor mine.”

“And what, exactly, will us marrying even do?”

“If the hawks and ravens see us, the two who probably hate each other the most in all of Serenes, overcome our differences and marry… They’ll be willing to listen to each other. And to me,” Tibarn added begrudgingly. There were very few things he despised more in the world than admitting his faults, Naesala being one of those things. Admitting his faults to _Naesala_ quickly found its way near the top of the list.

“Last I checked, I’m not the only eligible raven in Serenes. Or could it be,” Naesala put his hand to his mouth in false shock, “that the mighty hawk king has fallen for the underhanded former raven king.”

Tibarn frowned, three seconds away from reminding Naesala how he got his title as the strongest bird laguz, “Would it kill you to take this seriously?”

“How can I? Your idea is absolute nonsense.”

“Reyson’s idea.”

“ _What_ ,” the raven deadpanned. _There it is_ , Tibarn thought, for if there was one thing the two had in common, it was their willingness to listen to the herons. And, of course, the desire to get the herons whatever they wished, for there was usually a good reason for it (outside of Reyson’s wish to become a hawk in all but name.) “… It is foolish for us to be together, but if _he_ sees something in it… No, at the end of the day, even all these years we’ve spent fighting, I hardly know you.”

“Fighting is a good way to know somebody,” Tibarn supplied, “And if fighting tells a person’s true nature, than no one knows you better than me.” Naesala gave him a curious look, and it took all of the hawk’s power not to roll his eyes. It wasn’t as if Tibarn was an idiot- even if his pronunciation had a rocky start, he was at least well-read.

“Mmm… And there are worse people, I suppose. Namely Duke Tanas,” the two wrinkled their nose at the raven’s words, finding a small companionship in their shared hatred. “And shared enemies seem to be a good start for any relationship. Very well, Tibarn, I accept.”

“Excellent. I’ll be sure to-“

“Make a formal announcement,” Naesala raised a brow. He scoffed at the confused look on the hawk’s face, “If it’s not announced to more than just our closest, then there would be no point to getting married in the first place. Not only that, but you’re the king, and there are formalities to be observed.”

“Naesala, you know I’m bad at these things.”

“I know that- And your manners are all the more atrocious for it. Leave it to me to create the invitations and the ball… You can just show up,” Tibarn frowned at the raven’s words, but found no grounds to argue. “Now go scamper off while I think of how to handle this.” The hawk rolled his eyes, but accepted the dismissal nonetheless. If there was one thing he knew about the former raven king, it was that he was good when placed to work.

=-=-=

With startling speed, Naesala had quickly roped anybody with a decent amount of power on Tellius to their ball within two weeks. Tibarn had been busy as well, working to make the building to be used at least presentable. With their country consisting of mostly bird laguz, they had been more focused on creating buildings that spiraled around the ancient trees of Serenes, leaving the buildings on the ground to disrepair. But considering nearly all of their guests possessed no wings, Naesala had quickly sent his… fiancé to complete repairs. _“But leave decoration to myself, or another raven,” he frowned and gave Tibarn a once over, “You hawks have a horrible sense of décor.”_

Once the hall had met Naesala’s standards, Tibarn was quick to excuse himself out. He had hoped to perform more productive activities, and perhaps sway a few more advisors… But unfortunately, the advisors seemed more eager to chatter about the upcoming festivities, leaving the hawk with a  sense of dread until the event itself, feeling as if he were suffocating in his fancier clothing (once again, meeting Naesala’s standards, if a huff was taken as a yes and glare taken as no.)

The building wasn’t small, but it was certainly not built for the use it held now. Tibarn sighed- they would have to start working on the larger, more official hall later, which was much worse off than the one they stood in now. As it was now, the festivities were all but spilling out into the forest, and the hawk knew that the herons would prefer their forest not be desecrated in the name of parties.

Speaking of which, the herons seemed delighted to see Serenes Forest brimming with life again. Leanne wandered to and fro, attempting to strike up a conversation with the new language, which she had made leaps and bounds in. Rafiel had a content smile on his face, even though Queen Nailah was quite stern about keeping her arm around his waist. And Reyson, despite seeming somewhat out of place, appeared pleased to see life thrumming around him. When he locked eyes with Tibarn, the smile on his face grew, and he appeared to want to approach him, but stopped himself mid-step when his eyes caught something else. _Odd_ , the hawk wondered, curious about what could have-

Tibarn almost spat out his drink when Naesala hooked arms with him, the raven seeming rather unperturbed as his eyes scanned the crowd. “I believe everyone of importance is here,” he said quietly, toying with Tibarn’s hand, as the hawk became increasingly confused.

“What are you waiting for?” Naesala purred, not-so subtly slipping a hand along Tibarn’s backside, squeezing lightly. It took all of the hawk’s willpower not to let out an undignified squeak.

“Wh-what are you doing?”

“What? Are you a little shy after all we’ve done together, _love_?” Naesala drawled with an amused smile, eyes darting to his left. Tibarn followed his gaze and noted they had a small audience, and upon sighting Janaff and Ulki amongst them, a curious look on their face, he gave a long, internal sigh. When the hawk didn’t seem to calm down in time from his ministrations, the raven laughed and patted his arm, “Well, as long as you show it in other places, I can hardly complain.”

Their tiny audience seemed to giggle at that, to Tibarn’s mortification. Never in his years did he imagine Naesala was so excellent at acting, enough so that he could easily drag Tibarn in with enough grace to make even _Rafiel_ jealous. “Sorry,” he chimed in lamely, “You know how I get with these things.”

Naesala merely raised a brow, “Anyways, will you be announcing it soon?”

Ah, he’d almost forgotten the whole purpose of this event, and from the look on the raven’s face, it was all too easy to see. Tibarn cleared his throat uncomfortably, making just enough noise for the room to slowly quiet. He offered a small smile to the attentive faces, ignoring the fact that Naesala was getting awfully hands on with his waist. Any discomfort on his face could be easily read as shyness caused by his… “lover’s” handsiness, and not disgust at the spike of heat that trickled up his spine.

“After about four years of waiting, mostly for Serenes to come back together,” he did the math quickly in his head- the war ended six years ago, and no one could imagine the two together then. Two years was enough to settle differences, right? Considering the looks on the audience’s faces, they probably couldn’t quite believe it themselves. “Naesala and I have decided to finally get married. The wedding will be in a few months, and invitations will be sent accordingly.” He wrapped an arm around Naesala’s shoulder, ignoring the curious twitch of the raven’s wings. He would have his revenge. “I hope to see you all there!” And to the sound of approval, Tibarn kissed Naesala. After the initial rise of bile, he smugly basked in the barely concealed shock on the raven’s face.

The rest of the celebration continued with little incident. Sure, there were some scuffles between Skrimir and Soren, but a quick glance at the shadows and a scolding look from his uncle would set the lion away for a bit. Tibarn was quite glad to see the bird laguz advisors chatting up the new Begnion senators- even if they seemed a bit fearful, they were at least better disposed towards laguz than their predecessors. It was times like these that reminded the hawk what peace should look like, even if he, as a warrior, could never get used to the concept himself.

“Hey Tibarn, sorry to break up the party so early, but I should be on my way,” Ike pulled out a seat next to him, an apologetic look on his face.

“No need to worry. It’s mostly formalities at this point, so you won’t miss much,” the hawk shrugged, but didn’t lose eye contact, “Mind if I ask where you’re headed?”

Ike pointed over his shoulder, where his tactician stood very uncomfortably before an enthusiastic Skrimir. Tibarn almost pitied the boy, “If all goes as planned, this will be our last day in Tellius.”

“Any plans exactly where?”

“Wherever the winds take us, I guess,” Ike shrugged. “We just thought it would be nice to join in on the celebrations before we left,” Ike smiled and glanced at Soren, who seemed more content to melt into the shadows. Tibarn sighed softly, slightly off put that one of the few beorc he trusted- no, trusted with his _life_ would be gone, and well beyond where his wings could take him. No doubt the fame as Crimea’s and the Laguz Alliance’s general, on top of being the one who slew Ashera, had caught up to him. Tibarn could hardly blame him for leaving, but he would be sorely missed.

“Anyways, sorry that we can’t make the wedding. But I wish you two the best all the same,” the mercenary mused, “Looks like you’ll need it.”

Tibarn chuckled, “Yes, that Naesala’s a handful.” It felt odd to talk about the raven in such a lighthearted way, but he knew he would have to get used to it. He waved at Ike, but tracked the mercenary’s path with his eyes, until he vanished into the trees.

The young empress Sanaki was surprisingly alone… Or rather, seemed to have shaken off her retainers. She eagerly drank up the sight of the healing Serenes Forest, a small look of awe on her face. Before he did something foolish, certainly nothing along the lines of imprinting himself as the apostle’s adoptive father, his eye caught Naesala standing alone, nursing a drink. His eyes seemed to be pinned to something, and upon following his gaze, it ended at none other than Leanne, who was all smiles as she spoke to Micaiah.

Taking a chance, Tibarn stood next to Naesala, glancing about nonchalantly. He leaned close to the raven’s ear, and had it been seen from a distance, it would be as if he were whispering a short tale into his… fiancé’s ear. “I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to have her.”

The raven jumped, as if being ashamed for being caught staring. He was quick to gather his bearings, however, and shot him a glare. “Don’t be a fool,” Naesala snapped, “If we are to marry, you’re to be mine, and I yours. There won’t be anybody on the side.”

“I only hope we can reach a point where I can answer a serious ‘of course’ to that,” Tibarn crossed his arms and leaned away, but at least promising to himself to meet Naesala halfway. He glanced in Reyson’s direction, feeling that hope slip away.

Naesala seemed to notice, for his wings shivered in annoyance as he sighed. “You better. For the ‘good of the bird tribe’,” the last part was air quoted, but Tibarn promised himself he would try to avoid threatening Naesala for at least a full day, so he settled for an angry huff. They would have their whole lives to deal with each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For better or for worse, the first three chapters seem to be shorter than the later ones, which will definitely be more introspective.


End file.
